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The Producers

The movie based on the musical based on the movie…all by Mel Brooks. Now, you might ask why Mel Brooks would do this. Well, in some article somewhere, he said it was to preserve on…well it isn’t really film in the traditional sense anymore, so preserve in 1s and 0s four performances that were absolutely incredible onstage: Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Gary Beach and Roger Bart. But that wasn’t good enough for him. He had to add new players Will Ferrell and Uma Thurman to make the preservation even more spectacular. That man just doesn’t know when to quit. Or when to stop making Blazing Saddle references…the movie is jam-packed (what is it with me and jelly?) with them and makes this gut-busting adventure even more incredible.

Susan Stroman directs the movie adaptation and apparently makes the transition very well…having directed the Broadway show, she’s very familiar with the material. The same goes for Lane, Broderick, Beach and Bart who take their characters that extra step and give them an added vitality on screen. Thurman and Ferrell are fantastic! Apparently Ferrell is a song-and-dance man already, but I was surprised to see Thurman bust out all she did. She’s got a beautiful singing voice and the dance moves (I think she does everything except for some of the more extreme ones) look fantastic. She’s a 6′ Swedish (she really is Swedish!) bombshell who has endearing chemistry with Broderick, who doesn’t look a day over 22.

Now me personally, I had little fits in the audience whenever I picked up little missed moments (there were quite a few: especially Lane’s song “King of Broadway”), but overall the film was incredible. I hope it makes enough money to keep the movie musical trend going: I’d love to see Avenue Q the movie!